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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: racket · cell · cold · rash · staff · file · clip · fork

  1. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  2. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  6. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. file — a line of people
  2. staff — employees
  3. clip — to cut
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. staff — employees
  6. staff — a stick
  7. clip — for paper
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. rash — hasty
  10. cold — not warm
  11. cell — a phone
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. file — a document
  16. file — a tool
  17. rash — a series
  18. racket — a loud noise
  19. clip — a video
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. fork — in a road
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. cell — in biology
  24. cold — an illness

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com